With this study, we aim to generate knowledge on how a webinar practice may support the development of scholarly skills in a pre-teaching program. A series of webinars connected researchers and students from Finland, Norway and Sweden and gave the students access to an authentic Network of researchers, otherwise not accessible to them. The webinars were recorded and an analysis, inspired by variation theory, were conducted in order to identify signs of scholarly thinking in the conditions framing these situations in student reasoning when discussing their final thesis. The theoretical framing underlining the study acknowledges that 1) aspects of scholarly training can be discerned from communicative actions, 2) that the educational practice is subject to mediation and 3) that there are constitutive aspects influencing a higher education practice. Two critical aspects for stimulating scholarly thinking during webinars emerged from data. First the diversity of language and knowledge and secondly, a more informal framing. A carefully staged webinar using these two critical aspects, offers a socialisation of students in professional training, to an academic discourse where the production and evaluation of knowledge is part of students’ identity and constantly debated.